Saturday, October 27, 2018

•Joint pain,
tenderness, swelling or stiffness for six weeks or longer

•Morning
stiffness for 30 minutes or longer

•More than one
joint is affected

•Small joints
(wrists, certain joints of the hands and feet) are affected

•The same joints
on both sides of the body are affected

Along with pain, many people experience fatigue, loss of
appetite and a low-grade fever.~the dreaded condition that many face .. ..
.. Rheumatoid arthritis can affect people of any age, although often starts
when a person is between 40 and 50. It occurs when the body's immune system
targets affected joints, leading to pain and swelling.Experts say there is no cure for the
condition, but medication and other treatments can relieve symptoms.

Defending champion
Caroline Wozniacki was knocked out of the WTA Finals as Ukraine's Elina
Svitolina booked her place in the last four in Singapore. The attractive Caroline Wozniacki is a Danish professional
tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in singles. She is also the first
woman from a Scandinavian country to hold the top ranking position and 20th in
the Open Era. She finished on top of the
rankings in both 2010 and 2011.

AT WTA, World
number three Wozniacki, 28, knew only a straight-set victory would see the Dane
progress from the group stage. After taking the first set, she was a break up
in the second but Svitolina, 24, recovered to win 5-7 7-5 6-3. World number
eight Pliskova, 26, claimed her first victory over Kvitova, 28, in four
attempts.

Rheumatoid arthritis
(RA) is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system – which
normally protects its health by attacking foreign substances like bacteria and
viruses – mistakenly attacks the joints. This creates inflammation that causes
the tissue that lines the inside of joints (the synovium) to thicken, resulting
in swelling and pain in and around the joints. The synovium makes a fluid that
lubricates joints and helps them move smoothly. If inflammation goes unchecked,
it can damage cartilage, the elastic tissue that covers the ends of bones in a
joint, as well as the bones themselves. Over time, there is loss of cartilage,
and the joint spacing between bones can become smaller. Joints can become
loose, unstable, painful and lose their mobility. Joint deformity also can
occur. Joint damage cannot be reversed, and because it can occur early, doctors
recommend early diagnosis and aggressive treatment to control RA.

Rheumatoid arthritis
most commonly affects the joints of the hands, feet, wrists, elbows, knees and
ankles. The joint effect is usually symmetrical. That means if one knee or hand
if affected, usually the other one is, too. Because RA also can affect body
systems, such as the cardiovascular or respiratory systems, it is called a
systemic disease. Systemic means “entire body.”

Former world number
one Caroline Wozniacki says she was "shocked" to be diagnosed with
rheumatoid arthritis, but wants to become a role model for people with the
condition. The Dane, 28, discovered she had the auto-immune disease in August
and says "it has been a lot to take in". "You feel like you're
the fittest athlete out there and all of a sudden you have this to work
with," she said. Wozniacki - who won the Australian Open in January, her
only Grand Slam to date - revealed she had the condition after her season ended
with defeat at the WTA Finals.

She said she began
to notice symptoms of fatigue after Wimbledon, where she lost in the second
round, and one morning was unable to lift her arms over her head. The world
number three says some days she has struggled to get out of bed and doctors
diagnosed her in August before the US Open. "In the beginning, it was a
shock," said Wozniacki. "It's obviously not ideal for anybody, and I
think when you're a professional athlete, it's also not even more ideal. "I think I didn't want to talk about it during the
year because I don't want to give anyone the edge or thinking that I'm not
feeling well, but I have been feeling well."You learn how to just cope after matches. Some days you wake up
and you can't get out of bed and you just have to know that's how it is, but
other days you live and you're fine. You don't even feel like you have
it."

Rheumatoid
arthritis can affect people of any age, although often starts when a person is
between 40 and 50. It occurs when the body's immune system targets affected
joints, leading to pain and swelling. The NHS says there is no cure for the
condition, but medication and other treatments can relieve symptoms. Wozniacki
has been taking medicine and receiving treatment to manage the disease and is
positive the condition will not impact on her career - she won the China Open
earlier this month.

"Winning was
huge. It also gave me the belief that nothing is going to set me back. I'm
going to work with this and this is how it is, and I can do anything. "I'm
very proud of how I have been so positive through it all and just kind of tried
to not let that hinder me. "I know there are a lot of people in the world
that are fighting with this, and hopefully I can be someone they can look up to
and say that if I can do this, then they can too. And you just kind of have to
get together and pull each other up."